Some folks find arrowheads. Others turn up old coins. But out here on the north side of Erath County—just past the scrub line and the mesquite-thick fence row—we found a nail. Not just any nail, either. This one had heft. Rusted through, squared on all sides, and worn smooth on the corners like it had seen a century’s worth of sunrises and storm fronts.
It didn’t take long to figure out what it was: an old railroad spike, likely hand-driven, left behind by the workers who laid down the great iron veins of the Texas & Pacific Railway (Now the Union Pacific Railroad).
Now, this wasn’t dug up in a tidy museum dig or even found with a metal detector. It just showed up, laying on the ground near an old railroad tie being used as a fence post. No rails around here, at least not for 3-1/2 miles. But for a moment, you can almost hear the long whistle of a locomotive echoing down the Palo Pinto hills.
The Texas & Pacific Comes Through
Back in the 1880s, the Texas & Pacific Railway was carving its way westward through Texas, bringing with it all the noise, progress, and grit of the industrial age. It roared through Palo Pinto County, stopping in small towns like Gordon, Mingus, and Strawn, before barreling toward Cisco and Abilene.
These weren’t just train stops—they were lifelines. The T&P brought lumber, mail, people, and dreams. It turned remote ranchlands into connected communities. And it left behind pieces of itself: wooden ties long since rotted, gravel ballast, and the occasional stubborn iron spike.
Holding the Rails—and the Stories—in Place
That spike we found might’ve held coal, bricks or cattle bound for Fort Worth stockyards or just sacks of flour and letters home. It’s a small thing, rusted and jagged, but it once held together something a whole lot bigger.
And now it lives on the shelf in the barn, next to a dusty collection of old tools and a jar of forgotten nails.. It reminds us that we’re not the first to wrestle with this land, and we won’t be the last. But if you’re lucky, every now and then, the past reaches up through the dirt and shakes your hand.